Joan Crawford

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Lucille Fay LeSueur, known as

Joan Crawford
(Actress and businesswoman)

Annex - Crawford, Joan (No More Ladies) 03.jpg

Born March 23, 1906 [1]
San Antonio, Texas
Died May 10, 1977 (aged 71)
Manhattan, New York City
Spouse (1) Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (married 1929-1933, divorced)

(2) Franchot Tone (married 1935-1939, divorced)
(3) Phillip Terry (married 1942-1946, divorced)
(4) Alfred Steele (married 1955-1959, his death)
Four adopted children:
Christina, Christopher, Cindy, and Cathy

Religion Christian Science

Joan Crawford, originally Lucille Fay LeSueur (March 23, 1906 [1] – May 10, 1977), was an American actress who became a director of the Pepsi-Cola Corporation after the death in 1959 of her fourth husband, company executive Alfred Steele.

Crawford began her acting career as a dancer on Broadway in New York City. She appeared on radio and starred in a large number of films, perhaps the most remembered is the horror picture, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, in which she appeared on screen in 1962 with her long-time rival, Bette Davis. She appeared three times in Ronald W. Reagan's General Electric Theater, an anthology television series on CBS. She was cast in two episodes of Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater: "Rebel Range" (1959) and "One Must Die" (1961), a CBS western series. In 1963, she was cast as Morgan Harper in the episode "Same Picture, Different Frame" of the CBS drama, Route 66. In 1968, Crawford appeared in five episodes of the CBS former daytime drama, The Secret Storm. That same year, she appeared as herself on Lucille Ball's CBS situation comedy, The Lucy Show, in the episode "Lucy and the Lost Star." Her last film was the 1970 British horror picture, Trog. That same year, she appeared on NBC's The Virginian western series as Stephanie White in the episode "Nightmare".[2]

She was estranged from her two older adopted children, Christina and Christopher, who she omitted in her will. Christina wrote a "tell-all" book in 1978 entitled Mommie Dearest, in which she alleged that Crawford was an abusive, alcoholic mother more interested in her film career than her children. Crawford's two youngest daughters, Cindy and Cathy, and some of Crawford's Hollywood associates, including Katharine Hepburn and Cesar Romero, expressed doubt about the book.

On July 20, 1998, one of Joan Crawford's other adopted children, Cathy Crawford LaLonde, filed a lawsuit against Christina Crawford for "defamation of character." LaLonde stated in her lawsuit that during the 20th anniversary book tour of Mommie Dearest, Christina publicly claimed to interviewers that LaLonde and her twin sister, Cynthia, were not biological sisters, and that their adoption was never legal. Lalonde stated neither claim by Christina was true, and attached copies of the twin girls' birth certificates and adoption documentation to the lawsuit. The lawsuit was later settled out of court for $5,000 plus court costs. [3][4]

All four of Crawford's marriages ended after four years. Crawford's cremains are interred along with fourth husband, Alfred Steele, at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 The Concluding Chapter of Crawford
  2. Joan Crawford. Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved on April 19, 2018.
  3. "The Morning Call" Newspaper, July 21, 1998
  4. "The Morning Call" Newspaper, November 25, 1999